Seated Figure with Tenon

With a tenon emerging from its back, this form was once part of the architectural façade for a building known as the Temple of the Warriors at the Maya site of Chichen Itza. In its posture and costume, it exemplifies the tendency of Postclassic sculpture toward three-dimensional renditions of the human figure. The serene face matches the gesture of obedience indicated by the hand on the chest. Traces of polychrome—red on the cape and blue on the right cheek—indicate that the sculpture was painted, perhaps multiple times. The pillbox hat and closely cropped hair are suggestive of Toltec styles connected to the site of Tula-Hidalgo, some 1,500 kilometers away in central Mexico. How these two regions understood and interacted with each other during this period is still debated.